WE SHALL ENFORCE STRINGENT MEASURES TO SAFEGUARD SACCO MEMBERS SAVINGS- BUSIA CHIEF OFFICER
Busia County Chief Officer for Cooperatives and Investments, Patrice Lumumba has revealed they have instituted stringent measures aimed at safeguarding the savings of members.
Addressing participants during the 100th International Day of Cooperatives (in Kenya commonly known as Ushirika Day) at Busia Vocational Training Centre at the weekend, Mr Lumumba said the county government will not relent in its pursuit to ensure members got the value of their investments.
” We are not doing very well with over 300 SACCOS but with about 140 active and yet they are limping. We need to streamline the operations of these non profit organizations to save millions of members’ investments from sinking,” Mr Lumumba said.
He added:” These are peoples’ investments who habour all their aspirations on them. These are their retirement hopes and they have put all their trust in your hands, thus the need not to fail them by ensuring Saccos don’t wade down.”
The Chief Officer noted with concern that the interest rates offered by most Saccos were on the higher side compared to some commercial banks. There is need for a paradigm shift to restore the hopes and aspirations of members who have abandoned other priorities to invest with Saccos.
Lumumba said some Saccos are running illegally without an office, no annual general meetings and audited reports, adding that he has put external auditors to audit the books of Saccos to restore members confidence.
However, the Chief Officer urged members who borrow from their respective Saccos to ensure prudent payment of money they borrow to ensure long sustainability of their Saccos.
County Director Cooperatives and Cooperative Enterprise Development Fund, Oscar Odaba said the County Government of Busia will convert all table bankers into Saccos to empower members economically, urging Saccos to encourage voluntary registration of members.
Mr Odaba said, despite the event failing to take place in 2020 and 2021due to Coronavirus pandemic, they have made many strides in revamping the sector, calling on Saccos to focus on service delivery especially human centred business model.
” Saccos are non profit making organizations which should not aim at maximizing profits, urging them to embrace traditional cooperative model by charging 5 percent per annum interest instead of levelling the same charge which was equivalent to 60% compared to 13% charged by local commercial banks,” Mr Odaba said.
Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd Busia Branch Manager, John Onsongo urged Saccos to grow their membership with Co-op Society which opened doors through session paper no 10 of 1965 that gave birth to Co-operative Bank of Kenya.
He urged Saccos to embrace digitization which he said is key to the growth of cooperatives transition of cooperatives.
” Out of Ksh15 billion that the bank earns in annual profits, 70 per cent goes to cooperatives,” he said, thus the need by Saccos to invest their money with the bank.
The best urban Sacco went to Faridi with a capital base of Ksh1.2b. ACK Nambale Women Sacco was ranked the best rural Sacco. Other best rural Saccos included Bumala Mashinani, Akukuranut Teso South, FOBBS Sacco Teso North, Samia Jokabel, Butula SME, Tangakona value chain, PV Fresh Fish Traders, Teso South Fish Farmers, Jairos Cooperative, Mulwanda, Butula Bamboo and Matayos Pig Farmers.
In housing, Busia Kilimo and Shippers were voted the best with Hamazon Matayos and Translax Samia emerging the best in the transport industry.
Ushirika Day is marked by cooperatives worldwide since 1923 and officially declared by the United Nations General Assembly on the centenary of the ICA in 1995. It’s celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July.
The aim of #CoopsDay is to increase awareness of cooperatives and promote the movement’s ideas of international solidarity, economic efficiency, equality, and world peace.
A decade on from the UN International Year of Cooperatives, which showcased the unique contribution of cooperatives to making the world a better place, this year’s #CoopsDay slogan –“Cooperatives Build a Better World”– echoed the theme of the International Year.
“Cooperatives are answering the wake-up call of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who warned that the world is ‘on the edge of an abyss — and moving in the wrong direction’, and exclaimed that ‘to restore trust, and inspire hope, we need cooperation, we need dialogue, we need understanding’.
Operating all around the world, in many different sectors of the economy, cooperatives have proven themselves more resilient to crises than the average. They foster economic participation, fight against environmental degradation and climate change, generate good jobs, contribute to food security, keep financial capital within local communities, build ethical value chains, and, by improving people’s material conditions and security, contribute to positive peace.
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